Mobile computing devices such as smartphones and tablet computers have become an integral part of many people's lives. Many people use these devices as an aid for researching, comparing and purchasing products online as well as in physical stores. In fact, some reports indicate that up to 84% of smartphone shoppers utilize their smartphones while in a physical store to, among other things, research product specifications, compare prices and read reviews.
Some application developers have created device applications that leverage augmented reality techniques to further enhance user experiences. Augmented reality techniques utilize a camera to present a live view of a scene and augment the scene with additional information. For example, a navigation application that leverages augmented reality technology may present a live view of a street scene and augment the street scene with address information, directions and/or other navigation information as an overlay to the live images captured by the camera. Other augmented reality applications exist, including some that allow shoppers to get additional information regarding products within a store.
Although augmented reality provides a fun and useful tool for users to receive information in a real-world context, many users find it can be cumbersome to hold up their device to view the live scene captured by the camera and the contextual information that augments the live scene. This may result in many users fleeting use of augmented reality applications. Without augmented reality, however, a user's field-of-view, as approximated through the device camera, is lost and information that might be contextually relevant becomes more difficult to ascertain and present to the user.